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In March of 2006, GolfweekMagazine sent out a press releaseindicating they they were starting

the first Internet golf television showin the nation. Knowing differently, Iimmediately pointed out that theMichigan Golfer was the first golftelevision show and that we hadbegun our television programmingsome five years earlier. To provemy point I directed their PR firm toour linkhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show7/. The link is to a show we didon the WJR Internet Advisor Showin March of 2001 announcing ournew Internet television show.

GLSP, the parent company of theMichigan Golfer, had previouslybeen a partner in two former televi-sion shows, The Michigan GolferTelevision Show and Golfing theGreat Lakes. The first show, theMichigan Golfer Television Show,was a partnership with Terry Moore,Tom Durant of Video Images andthe Michigan Golfer. Our talent wasTom Cleary, who is now the voice ofthe Grand Rapids-based White Capsminor league baseball team, as wellas a partner with Terry Moore andJack Berry in a PR firm known asAll About Golf. The show lasted ayear as costs and revenues did notfavorably add up.

The second foray into the tele-

vision market, Golfing the GreatLakes, was headed up again byTom Durant of Video Images.There were a variety of partnersthat comprised the group, withGLSP being one of them. Our tal-ent for the show the first year wasFrank Beckman from WJR. In yeartwo Larry Adderley, formerChannel 7 sports anchor, took over.All told, the series ran eight yearsand produced over 65 shows oncourses in the Great Lakes area.You can visit the remnants of theprogram at http://www.webgolfer.com/golfgreatlakes/. The showswere well liked and we had a nicerun on the 30+ PBS station net-

work. Once again, the economicsof producing the shows paired withthe non-commercial realities ofpublic television, ultimately led tothe show’s demise.

Michigan Golfer Television– Five Years and 250 Shows Later

By Art McCafferty

Bay Mills, Mike Husby and Judy Mason gave us a chance to cover our firstprofessional tournament.

Ben Davis, when asked totalk about the discriminationhe faced in golf, said, “I can'tdo it because thinking aboutit will make me cry.”

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As publisher of GLSP and thebasic sales person for the Golfingthe Great Lakes Shows, I hadfirst-hand knowledge of the frus-tration involved in producing andfunding these shows. Our firstyear of the Michigan GolferTelevision Show was placed oncommercial television. For exam-ple, we were on WZZM-TV inGrand Rapids and had a great timeslot. However, commercial timeon a broadcast station is expensive.The shows were costing us a thou-sand dollars a week for the airtime.The financial clock was alwaysticking on that show. When wedeveloped the Golfing the GreatLakes show, we decided to go withPBS stations. The cost of PBS sta-tion time was basically the cost ofthe satellite feed each week.However, the opportunity for mak-ing money on the show was less-ened by the non-commercial reali-ties of PBS programming.

During the eight year run ofGolfing the Great Lakes, we intro-

duced our audiences to many ofthe great courses in the GreatLakes area. Our cameras went toEagle Ridge in Illinois; JudayCreek, Otter Creek and Sultan’sRun in Indiana; Quail Chase inKentucky; Bay Valley, The Bear,Bedford Valley, Black Bear, BlackForest, Boyne’s Alpine, BayHarbor, Heather and Moor cours-es, Captains Table, ChestnutValley, Concord Hills, Dumaglas,Eagle Crest, El Dorado, Fortress,The Gailes, Garland’s Fountainsand Swampfire, The Classic, TheLoon, The Lake, Hessel Ridge,High Point, The Jewel, LittleTraverse Bay, Marsh Ridge, TheMeadows, The Pohlcat, The Rock,Stonehedge, and Treetops’ Smithand Jones courses in Michigan;Eagle Sticks and Maumee Bay inOhio and Blackwolf Run and TheBrute in Wisconsin. In all, weproduced over 60 Golfing theGreat Lakes shows.

While PBS stations offered aquality delivery system for theshows, the problems inherent inutilizing their platforms were sig-nificant. We put the shows up ona satellite feed each week, but theywere not necessarily shown thatweek. Many stations taped theshows for later broadcast. As aresult, it was difficult to promotethe show times on the 30+ stations.Thus, many clients missed seeingtheir show, and we had to wait forword of mouth to get back to themfrom people who did see theshows. While this happened fre-quently enough for resorts to doadditional courses, it was always aproblem. We also never knew untilthe end of the season, what stationswere carrying the show. PBS sta-tions were required to get back atthe end of the season to tell various

feeder stations, in this case,Detroit’s WTVS, what outstate sta-tions were carrying the show. Itwas then that we knew that PBSstations as far away as HuntingtonBeach, California and Bozeman,Montana carry the show.

Finally, there was the problemwith establishing ratings for theshow. PBS shows typically do nothave ratings big enough to measure

and really are not driven by ratingsanyway. As the salesman for theshow, it was always difficult topersuade courses to buy into ourprogramming because I could onlyoffer annedotal evidence of theshow’s success. After, we canceledGolfing the Great Lakes in 1999,the thought of creating an Internettelevision show on golf began toenter my mind.

The challenges for Internetvideo programming at that timewere substantial. The technologythat would allow such a media was

Our Robert Trent Jones interviewswere very well received across thecountry.

Bill Newcomb, who had justdesigned Calderone Farms, wasour first interview.

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just coming on board. Whileyou could view video on dialup Internet connections, it wastoo slow and small to be useful.The broadband connectivityneeded for video was runningat about 9% when we started,but we felt that in a few years,this would change dramatically.Also, people were used to get-ting everything free on theInternet and therefore a newrevenue paradigm had to becreated. There was also theproblem of the limited sophisti-cation in Internet technologyfor most of the populationwhich by default included theleadership in the golf industry.Therefore, not only did wehave to create this new product,but we also had to provide aneducation of its value andpotential to our customers.

On March 9th of 2001, ourfirst Michigan Golfer InternetTelevision show went online.Our team consisted of our host,Dr. William Shelton, formerPresident of Eastern MichiganUniversity and an avid golfer,our director, Joe Yunkman, ofMichigan Media, JennieMcCafferty, the one responsiblefor understanding how all thistechnology was going to work,our editor Catherine Jones,Thad Gutowski our salesmanand finally myself, as the pro-ducer. Bill Newcomb was ourfirst guest and we featured thatshow– http://michigangol-fer.tv/2001shows/show1/ aspart of our display at theMichigan Golf Show. OnMarch 10th, our team visitedthe studios of radio stationWJR to appear on the Internet

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Our crew in 2001, Jennie McCafferty, Joe Yunkman’s assistant, Bill Shelton,Joe Yunkman, Art McCafferty, Chris Lahiri and Thad Gutowski.

Advisor show, with Foster Braun and Gary Baker. It was then that weannounced that we had begun our programming.When we launched ourMichigan Runner Television show in June of that year, we became the 2ndInternet television network in the world, the first being Pseudo.com, a showthat was featured on 60 Minutes.

Since our debut in March of 2001, our viewership has increased substan-tially. Then again, when you start with zero, the only way is up. Since thetechnology was so new, there were not many networks or shows around inwhich we could compare the traffic with. Thus, we are comparing trafficwithin our own network for now. Since we launched our network, we haveput up over 600 Internet video shows on our five channels. Listed belowis the viewer response we have had with our network in 2005.

Show Channel Viewers

Michigan Golfer Television http://michigangolfer.tv 541,475

Michigan Skier Television http://michiganskier.tv 54,413

Michigan Travel Television http://michigantravel.tv 164,074

Michigan Runner Television http://michiganrunner.tv 250,038

Running Canada Television http://runningcanada.tv 112,088

Total Viewers 1,127,975

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To be sure, the early yearswere a struggle. When westarted, Michigan only had

9% of its people on broadbandInternet. Now, that figure is closeto 70%. That fact, plus the abilityof search engines to help peoplefind us, have helped us tremen-dously in getting traffic. Traffic ledto clients interested in our prod-ucts. After five years and over 600shows on five channels, it lookslike this is the year we will turn aprofit. And as we all know,“Happiness is Positive Cash Flow.”

After five years, we submitthese shows as our benchmarks.

The Loon was our prototype for our “ Architect and Their Courses” series.

Bill Shelton and Mike McCafferty as “The Haig” created a great Ryder Cupseries for our viewers.

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Bill Newcomb Interviewhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show1/The first of our 600+ shows.

Internet Advisor Showhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show7/We announced our modest, yetinspired venture into Internet tele-vision on the show.

Robert Trent JonesSerieshttp://michigangolfer.tv/2001shows/show19/We were able to use video we hadtaken 12 years earlier and repur-pose it for Internet Television. Itwas our first hit show.

Bay Mills Openhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2002shows/baymillsopen/Mike Husby, Bay MillsTournament Director, hired us toprovide our first coverage of a pro-fessional golf tournament.

Walter Hagen and theRyder Cuphttp://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/hagen/The Hagen series featured our hostBill Shelton and our son, Mike

McCafferty, who played WalterHagen. When Bill Shelton wasPresident of Eastern MichiganUniversity, he awarded Michael anAppreciation of Merit Award for hiswork in EMU’s Communication andTheater Arts program. It was a funproject for both of them. It also gaveus an opportunity to create a seriesof shows.

The Bullhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/thebull/This was our breakout video ongolf courses. It featured the defthand of our director and videogra-pher, Joe Yunkman. He capturedthe course and the course designer,Jack Nicklaus, perfectly.

Jeff Daniels Comedy GolfJamhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2003shows/show22/We flat out had a great time tapingthis show and working with Jeffand his staff.

The Loonhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2005shows/Loon/Once again, Mike Husby camethrough with a budget that allowedus to create one of our best shows.

Ben Davishttp://michigangolfer.tv/2005shows/davis/This show featured another look atthe history of Michigan golf. BenDavis and his recollections ofbeing a minority in the golf busi-ness were riveting.

Ryder Cup Celebration http://michigangolfer.tv/2005shows/irish/

The greatest golf event in the worldallowed us to operate in the bigleagues and have some fun whilerecording some Michigan history.

Jerry Matthews VideoGalleryhttp://michigangolfer.tv/2005shows/irish/Our video gallery allowed us todisplay an array of coursesdesigned by the same architect. Itprovided a canvas of his work forfuture and past clients.

There you have it– a quick lookat the history of the Michigan GolferTelevision show during its first fiveyears of existence. We hope youenjoyed the journey and we hopeyou join us or continue to join us onour Michigan Golfer Televisionchannel in the future. MG

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Bucks Run was one of four JerryMatthews courses we put online.

Ryder Cup Opening Ceremonies

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